Useful Bosnian Words and Phrases for Visitors to Mostar

Do you actually need Bosnian to get around?

No. In Mostar’s old town, in the cafes lining the Neretva, and at every major sight from Počitelj to Međugorje, English is the working language of tourism. Menus are printed in English, tour guides brief groups in English, and hotel staff switch to it automatically the moment they hear a foreign accent. You will not struggle to book a room, order food, or ask directions without a word of Bosnian.

What trips visitors up is not speaking Bosnian but reading it — specifically, the five extra letters that carry accents (č, ć, š, ž, đ) and appear constantly in place names across Herzegovina. Get comfortable with those, and half the intimidation of “a language I don’t speak” disappears, because you are really just learning to read signs correctly, not to hold a conversation.

This page covers exactly two things: a short list of words worth knowing, and the diacritics that make names like Počitelj, Ljubuški and Međugorje look unfamiliar on a page. It does not cover prices or common scams — for that, see the separate guide on tourist traps and overcharging around Mostar. Money matters, including the fixed KM-to-euro rate, are covered on their own page too, in the guide to paying in convertible marks.

A handful of Bosnian words worth knowing

None of these are essential, but each one lands well with shopkeepers, waitstaff and drivers, and takes under five minutes to memorize.

Bosnian	Rough pronunciation	Meaning
Dobar dan	DOH-bar dahn	Good day (all-purpose daytime greeting)
Dobro jutro	DOH-broh YOO-troh	Good morning
Dobro veče	DOH-broh VEH-cheh	Good evening
Hvala	HVAH-lah	Thank you
Hvala lijepo	HVAH-lah lee-YEH-poh	Thank you very much
Molim	MOH-leem	Please / you’re welcome
Izvinite	eez-VEE-nee-teh	Excuse me / sorry
Da / Ne	dah / neh	Yes / No
Koliko košta?	koh-LEE-koh KOH-shtah	How much does it cost?
Račun, molim	RAH-choon, MOH-leem	The bill, please
Živjeli!	ZHEE-vyeh-lee	Cheers!
Doviđenja	doh-vee-JEH-nyah	Goodbye
Prijatno	pree-YAHT-noh	Enjoy (said before a meal, like “bon appétit”)

A few notes on using these. “Dobar dan” works from mid-morning through early evening and is the safest default greeting anywhere — a shop, a taxi, a museum ticket window. “Hvala” on its own is fine for small things; add “lijepo” when someone has gone out of their way, for instance a guide who has just spent ten minutes explaining the history of the Stari Most. “Molim” does double duty as both “please” and the standard reply to “hvala” — a shopkeeper handing you change will often say it instead of “you’re welcome.”

If you want to hear these words used naturally rather than read off a page, a guided walk is the easiest way — a half-day guided sightseeing tour of Mostar puts you next to a local guide for several hours, and picking up the rhythm of greetings and thanks from someone using them in context does more than memorizing a list.

Why the accents on č, ć, š, ž and đ are not optional

Bosnian uses the Latin alphabet with five extra letters, each built from a plain Latin letter plus a diacritic mark, and each representing a distinct sound that does not exist in unaccented English spelling:

Letter	Sounds like	Example
č	“ch” in “church”	Čapljina (a town near Mostar)
ć	a softer “ch”, closer to “tch”	Ćevapi (grilled minced-meat rolls)
š	“sh” in “shop”	Šarena Džamija (a mosque name)
ž	“zh”, the “s” in “pleasure”	Nežna (a common surname element)
đ	“j” in “jam”	Međugorje

These are not stylistic flourishes and not the same as an accent mark added for emphasis. Each diacritic changes which consonant is being represented — “c” and “č” are two different letters with two different sounds, in the same way that “c” and “k” are different letters in English. Dropping the mark does not simplify the spelling; it changes it, in the same way that removing a letter from an English word would.

This matters for a very concrete reason on this site: three of the most-visited places outside Mostar itself carry these letters in their names, and all three are frequently seen stripped of their diacritics on road signs, in old guidebooks, or on keyboards that lack the characters.

• Počitelj — the fortified Ottoman hill town on the road toward Čapljina — is often typed “Pocitelj,” which erases the “ch” sound the name actually carries.
• Ljubuški, the town near the small Kočuša waterfall in western Herzegovina, is frequently seen as “Ljubuski.”
• Međugorje, the pilgrimage site, is by far the most commonly mangled: “Medjugorje” (using “dj” as a stand-in for “đ”) is so widespread in English-language material that many visitors never see the correct spelling at all, and some maps and travel sites use “Medjugorje” as a practical compromise.

None of this is a barrier to visiting any of these places — locals, drivers and tour operators understand “Medjugorje” and “Pocitelj” without hesitation, since the unaccented forms are common enough to function as informal shorthand in English-language contexts. The point of learning to recognize the correct forms is different: it lets you read local signage, bus schedules and maps confidently once you are on the ground, and it avoids treating the missing letters as a simplification when they are, in fact, a different — and technically incorrect — spelling.

A short cheat sheet for reading Herzegovina’s place names

Beyond the three names above, a handful of other diacritics turn up across the region covered by this site. Recognizing the pattern helps more than memorizing each name individually.

Written form	Where it appears	What the diacritic does
Čitluk	wine country near Čitluk, between Mostar and Međugorje	č = “ch”
Široki Brijeg	town in western Herzegovina, Široki Brijeg	š = “sh”
Stećci (Radimlja)	the medieval tombstone necropolis near Stolac	ć = soft “ch”
Trebinje	in eastern Herzegovina, near Trebinje itself	no diacritic — spelled as written
Blidinje	the nature park below Mount Prenj	no diacritic — spelled as written

Not every Herzegovinian name carries an accent — Trebinje, Blagaj and Mostar itself are all spelled exactly as they read in English. The habit worth building is simply to check each name as written locally rather than assume any missing letter is a typo waiting to be corrected. If a sign, ticket or map spells a name with č, ć, š, ž or đ, that spelling is the correct one, and the version without the mark — however common online — is the simplified one.

Where English works, and where a few words genuinely help

English coverage in Herzegovina’s tourism sector is strong and improving. Ticket counters at the major sights, drivers on transfers between Dubrovnik or Split and Mostar, and staff at restaurants recommended in the guide to where to eat in Mostar by neighborhood all operate comfortably in English. A private guide booked through a hotel or tour desk will brief an entire group in English without difficulty, and the same is true of pilgrimage guides working around Međugorje’s main sites.

Where a few Bosnian words help most is in smaller, more everyday interactions: a bakery counter away from the tourist strip, an older shopkeeper in Trebinje or a village near Ljubuški, or a taxi driver outside the main square. In these settings, “dobar dan,” “hvala” and “molim” smooth the interaction even when the rest of the conversation happens in gestures and numbers written on a phone screen. None of this is a substitute for planning the practical side of a visit — currency, tipping norms and how much to budget are covered separately, and none of it changes if you skip these words entirely.

If your goal is simply to understand and be understood rather than to speak, joining a guided tour that walks the old town with a local guide is the easiest way to hear Bosnian used casually, ask a guide to repeat a tricky place name, and pick up pronunciation by ear rather than from a table on a page. Whether it makes more sense to book that kind of guided experience or to explore independently is its own question, addressed in the guide comparing guided tours to visiting Mostar on your own.

Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian: one language family, several names

Visitors sometimes ask whether the phrasebook they packed for a trip to Croatia or Serbia will work in Bosnia. In everyday practice, yes: Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian and Montenegrin are mutually intelligible standard languages built on the same linguistic base, and a word like “hvala” or “dobar dan” is understood identically across all four.

They share the same set of Latin-alphabet diacritics discussed above (Serbian also uses Cyrillic in some contexts, though Bosnia’s Federation entity, including Mostar, uses the Latin alphabet in everyday signage). The distinctions between the four are recognized as separate national standard languages, shaped largely by political and national identity rather than by deep differences in grammar or vocabulary, and getting the label “wrong” while traveling causes no real friction — locals are used to visitors using the terms loosely.

For a short trip built around Mostar and Herzegovina, none of this needs sorting out in advance. The words in the table above work everywhere in the region, the diacritics work the same way everywhere they appear, and the practical skill worth carrying — reading Počitelj, Ljubuški and Međugorje correctly rather than as flattened English approximations — applies just as well whether you continue on to Sarajevo, as covered in the guide comparing Mostar and Sarajevo, or head onward to the coast.

A note on food words

Two Bosnian words show up on menus often enough to be worth knowing on sight, both covered in more depth in the dedicated food guide: ćevapi (grilled minced-meat rolls, usually served with flatbread and onion) and burek (a savory filled pastry, often meat-filled, sold by weight at bakery counters).

Ordering either by name, with the correct soft “ć” sound in “ćevapi,” works everywhere from a sit-down restaurant to a takeaway stand — see the full guide to ćevapi, burek and Bosnian ašćinica-style cooking for what to expect on the plate. Coffee culture carries its own small vocabulary too, starting with the word “kafa” (coffee) and the copper pot it is brewed in — worth a look in the guide to drinking Bosnian coffee properly before your first cup.

Planning around the language, not for it

None of the above should shape how long you stay or how you get around — those decisions are covered elsewhere, in the guide to how many days to spend in Mostar and in the practical two-day Mostar itinerary. Language is the one part of planning a Herzegovina trip that genuinely takes care of itself: English carries you through nearly every booking, meal and ticket counter, and the few words above are a courtesy rather than a requirement. The one habit worth actually adopting is reading place names as they are written, accents included, so that Počitelj, Ljubuški and Međugorje look like the towns they are rather than approximations of them.

Bosnian language and place names in Herzegovina: FAQ

Do I need to speak Bosnian to visit Mostar?

No. Almost everyone working in tourism in Mostar’s old town, in Herzegovina’s main sights and along the coast-to-Mostar routes speaks workable English. Learning a few words is a courtesy, not a requirement, and you will get by comfortably with English alone.

What do the letters č, ć, š, ž and đ sound like?

č sounds like the “ch” in “church,” ć is a softer, more forward “ch” (closer to “tch” said with the tongue near the teeth), š is “sh” as in “shop,” ž is “zh” as in the “s” in “pleasure,” and đ sounds like the “j” in “jam.” None of them are decorative — each marks a distinct sound.

Why is Počitelj sometimes written without its accents, as Pocitelj?

That happens on road signs, old maps, keyboards without Bosnian characters, or in a hurry — not because the accents are optional. In standard Bosnian, dropping the caron over the “c” changes the letter’s sound and, strictly speaking, misspells the name. This guide keeps the diacritics throughout for that reason.

Is Bosnian the same language as Croatian or Serbian?

Linguistically, Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian and Montenegrin are close enough to be mutually intelligible in ordinary conversation, and they share this same set of diacritics. Each is recognized as a distinct standard language with its own name, largely along political and national lines rather than deep grammatical differences.

What are a few polite words worth learning before I arrive?

“Dobar dan” (good day), “hvala” (thank you), “molim” (please, or you’re welcome) and “izvinite” (excuse me) cover most everyday interactions in Mostar’s old town, cafes and shops, and are easy to pick up in a few minutes.

Does dropping the diacritics actually change the meaning of a name?

It changes the sound and, in a strict sense, the spelling, though context almost always makes the intended place clear to a local reader. For a visitor, the safer habit is simply to keep the accents as written on official signage and in this guide, rather than assume they are stylistic.